The need for faster and easier access to information has never been greater in this internet era. The popularization of wireless mobile devices has made it possible to obtain any information wherever and whenever. Currently, most of the mobile devices on the market have browser capability that provides internet access. But navigating through the various links and web pages to find the right information is not an easy task, especially on a small screen of a mobile device. In addition, only a relatively small percentage of the all websites on the internet offers a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) version of themselves for display on wireless mobile devices.
Text messaging based information retrieval systems such as the Google™ Short Message Service eliminates the need for web pages and browsers on a mobile device by allowing users to send queries and receive answers as text messages. They provide a more dynamic and efficient way to get the desired information, but a major deficiency of these systems is that many of the mobile devices, such as a cellular phone, are tiny and have tiny numeric keypads and screens that make it very difficult to enter text for a Short Message Service (SMS) message. The only text input method available on most involves pressing numeric keys once, twice or three times to select one of the alphabetical characters associated with it. This makes for very slow input, and discourages users from utilizing features like the Google™ SMS.
The present invention addresses these problems.